That’s OK! Not every schoolteacher teaches every subject. For the elementary grades, textbooks with teacher’s guides will give you the structure and the teaching tools that you need to teach subjects you’re unfamiliar with.

When your child reaches high school, you can call on subject specialists to help you out! Think about reaching out to your friends, family, faith community, homeschool groups, local networks, and online communities to for help with tutoring your teen, grading essays, or answering questions. You can also have your high schooler take outside courses at a co-op, community college, or online.

For an added boost to your confidence, keep in mind that homeschooling melds two of the strongest predictors of academic achievement: parental involvement and one-on-one learning.

First, you might be surprised to discover that the typical homeschool day—especially for elementary-aged children—takes a lot less time than it does in a traditional school setting.

But your instinct to consider the time commitment is right on. Homeschooling is a big investment for you as a parent. It involves taking full responsibility for your child’s education—planning out their school year and field trips, arranging for testing or other assessments, recordkeeping, figuring out what parts you will teach and what parts you might delegate to a tutor, a co-op, another parent, or an online or local course, etc.

And you’re already wearing a lot of hats—that’s true, too! Homeschooling is incredibly flexible—that gives you the beautiful opportunity to completely customize your homeschool schedule around your child’s learning pace and interests, your family’s calendar, and unique learning opportunities.

There are several factors to keep in mind when answering this question.

The typical homeschool day—especially for elementary-age children—takes a lot less time than it does in a traditional school setting because of the concentrated, one-on-one instruction that you can give your children.

Homeschooling is also incredibly flexible, which gives you the opportunity to customize your homeschool schedule. You can organize your homeschool day (and week!) around your child’s learning pace, your family’s calendar, extracurricular activities, and even your work schedule.

However, homeschooling is still a big investment for you as a parent. It involves taking full responsibility for your child’s education—planning out their school year and field trips, arranging for testing or other assessments, recordkeeping, figuring out what subjects or lessons you will teach and which ones you might delegate to a tutor, a co-op, another parent, or an online or local course, and so on.